George Henry, Gleaner Writer

Isaac Cohen, a small farmer from Sanguinetti, Clarendon, on his farm recently. - Photo by George Henry

Small farmers in parts of Clarendon have started to air their expectations to the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Christopher Tufton.

Most of the farmers who told The Gleaner that they have been in the business of farming for more than three decades, have given the Jamaica Labour Party administration of the 1980's high marks for the way it operated the sector and said they would like to see some of the initiatives of that time brought back.

The farmers said one of the things they would like the new Minister of Agriculture to re-implement is having extension officers visit farmers in the fields.

Visiting farms

Isaac Cohen, who is now in his mid-70s and who has been in the cultivation of yam, coffee, banana and other crops, said it has been a long time since he has seen an extension officer visit any farmer in his area at Sanguinetti in north- west Clarendon.

"There was a time when the extension officer used to come in the area and assist us with whatever problem we used to face with our crops, especially when they had some uncommon disease that we did not have the remedy for," Cohen said.

He added that whenever there were problems among farmers in his area which they could not solve readily, extension officers from the Ministry of Agriculture or from the Jamaica Agricultural Society would meet them in the fields and give them the necessary advice as to how they could be addressed.

But, according to the veteran farmer, all that went on in the mid- 1980s, left farmers in the dark. They tried to deal with some diseases on their own, while making problems worse and many farmers lost their crops due to ignorance.

Another farmer, Bertram Facey, who cultivates crops similar to Cohen's, said it was good when the extension officers visited them in their fields at certain times in the various seasons.

He said the advice of the extension officers from the Ministry of Agriculture - especially when it came on to chemical use - paid off.

He, too, wants the new Minister of Agriculture to have the extension officers come to them, and get from behind their desks at the Ministry of Agriculture, the Jamaica Agricultural Society and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority, and assist small farmers in new techniques in farming.

"I am sure that there are new things in agriculture that we, as small farmers out here, are not aware of," he said. "But the people who have the new methods and techniques and who used to visit the farms in the 1980's are not coming out here in our fields to guide us; and that is why so many persons are no longer in the business of farming. Extension officers usually come here and tell us the quantity of fertiliser and other chemicals we should use on our crops, and we usually get better returns."

Group meetings

He is also calling on the new Agriculture Minister to have the extension officers call group meetings in the various communities once per month, as was done in the 1980's, so that all farmers can air their difficulties and get the necessary assistance.

In the meantime, the farmers are also calling on Tufton to do whatever possible in having one of the three banana boxing plants that were closed in the 1980's re-established.

They said that when the plants at Frankfield, Ritches and Alston in north-west Clarendon were shut down, several farmers got out of banana production and started to plant yam and other crops.

This, they said, forced a significant reduction in the number of stems of the fruit produced in that section of the island, and that many farmers, though still planting, do not have a market for the crop.

They want at least one of the four to be set up, thereby encouraging farmers, who are still interested in banana cultivation, and those who have never been in the business, to enter.

A number of farmers also told The Gleaner that they would like to venture into coffee production, but that they would like the new minister to tell the agriculture sector what his plans are for coffee.